The interview: Just-Eat.ie MD Amanda Roche-Kelly (video)

Online eatery Just-Eat.ie has embraced a mobile-first strategy and in the past year has seen the number of fast-food takeaways using the service grow 40pc, according to Amanda Roche-Kelly, managing director at Just-Eat.ie.

Just-Eat.ie is a subsidiary of the global Just Eat online empire founded in Denmark in 2000. Globally, the service connects online consumers with takeaways in their neighbourhood and gets a 12pc commission for each order served.

More than 36,000 restaurants around the world use the service, and more than 40m orders have been delivered within 40 minutes from the moment the customer places the order online or via an app to its arrival at his or her front door.

The company generates revenues of stg£700m for its restaurants, out of which it has derived revenues of stg£96.8m.

In April, Just-Eat made a stg£1.5bn debut on the London Stock Exchange in what was the biggest technology float on that market for eight years.

In Ireland,the Just-Eat group has generated €20m in revenues for local restaurants, processing 1.5m orders with an average value of €18.86 per order.

Mobile first

“Our whole philosophy at the moment is 'mobile first',” said Roche-Kelly.

“The key for us is trust – the most important part of the whole transaction is the moment you press a button and order until it is delivered 40 minutes later.”

Just-Eat’s Irish website attracted more than 6m visitors in 2013 and according to Roche-Kelly, the company’s app has been downloaded 200,000 times.

In addition, the company’s restaurant base has grown 40pc to more than 1,455 restaurants using the system.

Roche-Kelly said the site blends mobile first with solid old-school business methodologies.

“Our main mission is to empower the user to love their experience. Every time someone comes on and doesn’t order we try to find out why and maybe we just don’t have one of the restaurants they were looking for.

“Then one of our salespeople will go out there and find that for them.”

Roche-Kelly added that the Irish operation is one of the fastest growing in the Just-Eat family.

“Our app would be the quickest growing app in the group of 13 countries and it just shows you how quickly mobile usage is growing in Ireland.”